ONLINE TRAINING COURSE

AUDIENCE: 

AUDIENCE:  Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) alumni are globally-located, and frequently university students or young professionals. They are looking to acquire new skills that can enhance their viability for small-grant applications, as well as provide ideas and materials that they can share in their community-based projects.

CONTENT: We had materials and curriculum on digital storytelling from numerous workshop and previous competitions.  Each had a different focus and style, so the content needed to synthesize the work of three people into a cohesive course.

DELIVERY:  Online open course style of video series, with main content videos, interactive quizzes, intro videos, project description videos, and supplemental materials.  It needed to be easily accessible to an international audience.

DESIGN: 

STRUCTURE: We began with a video-conference to talk through the scope of the contract and set a mission:  re-evaluate our individual areas of expertise to determine criteria for evaluating the submitted projects.  In this way, we began with the end in mind.

My first task was examining material for Storytelling Basics.  How could we develop specific, simple criteria for story quality, that was broad enough to include all three mediums:  audio, photography, and video?

In previous workshops, I focused on World, Characters, Sequence of Events, and Theme as my main components of a story.  In this case, I began to consider the function of each component, asking about the "why" of story in human existence and gathering research from multiple other sources.

We eventually established the three areas of our PSA curriculum as "Capture Attention", "Trigger Emotion", and "Send a Clear Message". Originally I had used the phrase "Leave an Impression", but considering our audience we decided it was best to be explicit in our expectations.

STRATEGY:

I began outlining a script and text-based storyboard for my videos: Storytelling Basics and Audio Storytelling.  I wrote a general ABCD objective each session, then worked with a "rapid-prototyping" approach to build out sections and concepts.

EVALUATION:

After completing rough ideas, I wrote the quizzes, working backwards in order to solidify the content and focus.  From the quiz questions I determined learning objectives, checked them against my original ABCD objective, and then scoured the scripts for how to tighten up the focus.

DEVELOP:

Developing the videos was a lengthy iterative process.  I reviewed each script numerous times, checking for cohesiveness and pertinent information.  The goal was to convey straightforward expectations and information in an engaging yet entertaining manner.

At this point, I also compiled supplemental material to share with the team for review.

I then set up the filming sessions, capturing the live video and audio.

After sequencing these, I created rough storyboards for Keynote slides that needed to be developed. Watching the videos and pausing at each point where content needed to be developed, I created the additional animation and text.

Once these were added, each video took an additional day for assessing the flow, clarifying points, remaking slides or adding content. Finally transitions, sound, and final touches were completed.

IMPLEMENT:

Our work was compiled into a MOOC platform (Teachable) and presented to the FLEX alumni:

EVALUATION:

Personally, as I worked through my own design process, I made note of several points that would have improved my own strategy and content:

1. Next time, match audio and video in one pass, along with any recoloring. Export as a single file and begin the main project with this video.
2. Create a full visual storyboard before filming
3. Take the lead on team conversations and check-ins to strengthen the cohesive use of examples and thematic touches.